The European Vega rocket's upper stage crashed and suffered major anomaly minutes after the Nov. 16 liftoff from French Guiana. The incident lost two satellites, and it is the rocket's second setback from its last three launches.
At 8:53 p.m. EDT (0152 Nov. 17 GMT), the Vega rocket took off from the spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana on a project by Arianespace called VV17. The test's initial phases seemed to go fine, but observers observed that during the first burn of the rocket's Avum upper stage, the rocket seemed to diverge from its intended trajectory.
"We can now confirm that the mission is lost," Arianespace CEO Stéphane Israël said during a launch webcast, per Space.com.
Vega's purpose is to put the two satellites in sun-synchronous orbits at slightly different orbital inclinations and altitudes.
Arianespace, Vega ready to launch European Earth observation satellites - https://t.co/fZgTdK1D97 pic.twitter.com/M0UbVEbNde — kc4mcq (@kc4mcq) November 16, 2020
Crashed After Two Hours
Arianespace reported two hours after the launch that the spacecraft had crashed. Experts detected a trajectory deviation from Vega mission VV17 eight minutes after the first ignition of the Avum upper stage engine.
In order to ascertain the cause of this failure, telemetry data studies are in progress.
The organization would not release other details regarding the failure but said it would conduct a Nov. 17 briefing to include further evidence.
Avum is an upper stage liquid-propellant used to inject payloads into space and then carry out maneuvers. As it launched its payload of two satellites, Avum was expected to conduct five burns over an hour and 45 minutes on this launch.
Avio, the prime contractor for Vega, is incorporating the upper stage. The framework is supported by Airbus Defense and Space and the Ukrainian corporation Yuzhnoye supplies the propulsion system.
The setback is the second for Vega in three launches, both having been successful in its first 14 launches. Due to a structural defect in the rocket's solid-fuel second stage, Arianespace lost the spacecraft in July 2019 carrying an imaging satellite for the United Arab Emirates, per Space.com.
Not until September 2, when the VV16 project deployed 53 smallsats on a dedicated rideshare mission did Vega return to flight. During the coronavirus pandemic, the return of the rocket was postponed for months by the closing of the Kourou spaceport, and then by bad conditions.
The next Vega mission, VV18, was planned for early 2021 prior to this setback, carrying the Pléiades-Neo 1 imaging satellite and a range of tiny secondary payloads.
What is TARANIS and SEOSAT-Ingenio?
Two European research satellites crashed in the launch accident. Airbus Defense and Space designed the 750-kilorgam SEOSAT-Ingenio, classified as Spain's first Earth observation satellite, to provide wide-field imagery for civil applications.
Supported by CDTI, the Center for the Production of Industrial Technology in Spain, the satellite has been established in cooperation with the European Space Agency's Spanish industry.
Its high-resolution images would be "ideal" for urban and agricultural production applications, DW said. Global change and natural events, including wildfires and flooding, may also be tracked.
The 175-kilogram TARANIS, or LightNIng and Sprites RAdiation Analysis Instrument, was designed by the French space agency CNES to research upper atmospheric electromagnetic phenomena produced by thunderstorms.
The TARANIS satellite will research luminous, radiative and electromagnetic phenomena occurring 20 to 100 km over thunderstorms.
These occurrences are classified as TLEs (Transient Luminous Events) and function as red sprites, blue jets, elves, and sprites' halos. Sometimes, terrestrial gamma-ray bursts (TGFs) surround them. One of the key questions scientists aim to address by using the data collected by TARANIS is the integration of TLEs with TGFs.
Scientists expect that it will detect thousands of TLEs and TGFs during the satellite's expected four-year mission, capturing their properties and features in high resolution.
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